Entries tagged with: PeterBjornandJohn

It's been four years since Peter Bjorn and John released Gimme Some and they are beginning to finally stir again. They have a new song "High Up (Take Me To the Top)" which is a little more of the studio-style creations we heard on Living Thing than the straight-up pop of Gimme Five. You can stream it, via Stereogum, below.

Whether there's a new album on the way or not remains to be seen. The song is featured on a Record Store Day 2015 compilation, INGRID Volym 2. Ingrid is the Swedish collective/label run by PBJ, Lykke Li, members of Miike Snow and more. The comp, which is limited to 500 copies worldwide, also features tracks Amason, Teddybears, Chrissie Hynde, PB&J frontman Peter Morén and more. Tracklist is below.

Swedes Peter Bjorn and John wrote a song, "I Wish I Was a Spy," for Yo Gabba Gabba! that you can check out over at NPR. It's on the new volume of the Music Is Awesome! series which also features tracks from Metric, Belle & Sebastian, CSS, Cut Copy, The Roots, The Bird And The Bee and more.

Here are some pictures from the Bowery Ballroom show, where they were supported by Niki & The Dove and The Suzan (who play Glasslands Sunday night with Hard Nips). They continue (with setlist) below...

Kicking off in Houston and hitting Fun Fun Fun Fest soon after, The Radio Dept's tour will hit NYC at Bowery Ballroom on November 20. Tickets for the Bowery Ballroom show go on sale Friday (8/5) with an AmEx pre-sale starting Wednesday (8/3) at noon.

Memoryhouse open other dates on the tour too, but not that show. You can catch Memoryhouse in NYC at their 9/12 Brooklyn Bowl show with Peter Bjorn & John though. Tickets are still on sale.

Speaking of Peter Bjorn & John, that Brooklyn Bowl show is one of four NYC area dates on their tour. When we last spoke, Memoryhouse was the only announced opener. It's since been revealed that The Suzan will open the 9/15 MHOW show and the 9/16 Bowery Ballroom show. Tickets are still on sale for the MHOW show but the Bowery Ballroom show is sold out. There is still no opener listed for the 9/13 Maxwell's show, which tickets are still available for.

New album STROKED: A Tribute to Is This It, as the title hints, is a tribute to The Strokes' massively influential debut Is This It. The album was released for free on Stereogum today (7/26). They write:

Is This It was recorded in NYC at Transporterraum with Gordon Raphael. When it was finally released in the States in the Fall of 2001, a decade after Nevermind, it helped not only put contemporary New York City in the forefront of music lovers' minds, it offered an easy reference for people to dig backwards into the Big Apple's rock 'n' roll past. For certain younger fans, it was maybe the first time they carefully considered Television (the late '70s), the Velvet Underground (mid '60s to early '70s), and other lesser known garage and rock and whatever bands that inhabited a dirtier, grubbier Manhattan. The title's pure Richard Hell. The original sexy album cover a minimalist echo of New York Dolls (via Roxy Music). It's no coincidence that 2001 NYC -- eventually, especially Brooklyn -- ended up being known for its post-punk revival. (See, for instance, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Black Dice, Vice Records' No New York nodding collection Yes New York, etc.) Is This It was a history lesson, but one with enough new ideas to also offer a roadmap.

Wise Blood contributed "Someday" to "Stroked". He and fellow weirdo rapper Cities Aviv share a bill on September 1 at Glasslands in Brooklyn. The show is one of many scheduled around the world for Wise Blood, but is Cities Aviv's only date we see scheduled at the moment. Tickets for the Brooklyn show are on sale now.

Wise Blood's tour includes another NYC show two days later. He plays a Jelly RockBeach showon September 3 with Pictureplane and others TBA. More dates are listed below.

Cities Aviv, the self-proclaimed "Post-Death" rapper, is also on the Glasslands bill with Wise Blood. The Memphis native released his debut full length Digital Lows on May 2. The album's production credits go to a number of virtually unknown producers, Muted Drone, RPLD GHOSTS, Danny Dee, Upgrayde, and Royal'T. The beats are dreamy, reverb-soaked headknockers that sound about as woozy as that album art (below) looks. Cities Aviv takes the beats, which on their own would make up a pretty solid chillwave album, and spits biting lines with a classic southern drawl. Fille Catatonique provides sung vocals which blend quite nicely with the album's vibes. The final track, "Float On," features Cities Aviv rapping over chillwaver Blackbird Blackbird's cover of the Modest Mouse song, that he recorded for 2010's Happy High EP. It's a fun way to end the album, and is far better than Lupe Fiasco's "The Show Must Go On," which sampled the Modest Mouse song earlier this year.

Cities Aviv isn't exactly the only rapper crossing into lo-fi/indie-approved territory lately, but he's certainly approaching the crossover from a unique angle. Digital Lows isn't nearly as blown out as, say, Shabazz Palaces, but he's still got way more experimentation going on than guys like Wiz Khalifa or Theophilus London. Grab the album for free at his bandcamp and check out some songs below.

Swedish dream-poppers The Radio Dept are releasing all three of their albums on 180 gram vinyl. This includes the classic Lesser Matters, its followup Pet Grief, and the more recently released Clinging to a Scheme, which came out during a time the sound they helped make popular was achieving massive success.

The Radio Dept have a few upcoming shows announced at the moment. On July 15 they'll play a free show at South Street Seaport with Asobi Seksu, and then hit Pitchfork Fest the next day. The only other show they currently have schduled in North America is in Dallas in November with Memoryhouse.

Memoryhouse meanwhile have been added as opener for some of Peter Bjorn & John's upcoming dates including the 9/12 show at Brooklyn Bowl. That show is the day before Sub Pop releases the Memoryhouse EP. Tickets are still on sale. No other openers have been added to PB&J's other NYC shows yet.

Asobi Seksu also plays a show at Brooklyn Bowl (on October 1). Tickets are on sale now.

On May 13th The Radio Dept. played the BV/M For Montreal showcase at the Great Escape Festival in Brighton with The Handsome Furs. A set of pictures from that show is in this post.

Peter, Bjorn & Johnrecently announced a tour with six local dates in September, but the September 14 show at Highline Ballroom is actually not happening (they were considering it and accidentally announced it, but it is 100% cancelled). That's ok though because there are still more than enough chances to see the band. Tickets are still available for MHOW and Bowery, Maxwell's, and Brooklyn Bowl. The Mercury show is sold out. Updated tour dates are listed below.

Oax opened the Austin show. Oax is the solo project of Giorgi Angelini. Giorgi has played bass in The Rosebuds and Bishop Allen, and previously sang in the band 1986 with Cully Symington, currently of Okkervil River (who play tonight). Oax releases a 5-song EP today (6/7). According to his facebook:

"The record was recorded by Giorgio Angelini in his home studio with the co-production help of Ivan Rosebud (The Rosebuds). The EP features guest performances by Jim Eno of Spoon and Chris Simpson (Mineral, Gloria Record). It's a hot one....and not like that Matchbox-20/Santana joint."

Peter Bjorn and John just finished up their tour with Bachelorette in support of the new album GImme Some. After hitting NYC three times on that trip, PB&J are back for more this fall on their All You Can Eat Tour.

This time the tour includes SIX NYC-area dates (seven if you count September 17 at Toad's Place): September 12 at Brooklyn Bowl, September 13 at Maxwell's, September 14 at Highline Ballroom, September 15 at Music Hall of Williamsburg, September 16 at Bowery Ballroom, and September 18 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets go on sale Thursday (5/26) at noon for Brooklyn Bowl, MHOW, Bowery Ballroom, and Mercury Lounge. Tickets are on sale now for the Maxwell's show. Highline Ballroom tickets aren't live yet, but maybe they'll be on sale Thursday too,

The All You Can Eat Tour is the band's longest US tour yet, but the amount of shows is much less than the number of cities. The tour kicks off in Chicago on August 24, but stays there for four shows. Toronto and LA also get a bunch of shows each. All dates are listed below...

As you know, BrooklynVegan presents a 3-band lineup consisting of BOBBY, Alex Bleeker & the Freaks, and Prussia at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn on May 5th aka Cinco de Mayo (aka tomorrow). Tickets are still on sale.

Honestly, the show just happened to fall on Cinco de Mayo, but since it did we decided to join in on the festivities by adding an open bar pre-party that is open to all 21+ BOBBY ticketholders. The concert start at 8pm, and we'll be serving free Hornitos Tequila cocktails in the Knitting Factory front bar from 6-8 to all 21+ ticketholders who show up (you can also buy a ticket when you get there) (they're only $10). Come party.

And in honor of Cinco De Mayo, our pre-party sponsor Hornitos Tequila is also hosting a Mariachi Mashup contest that will give bands a chance to win $10,000 - for full details visit the Hornitos Facebook Page, but it involves covering one of five songs, "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn & John, "Little Secrets" by Passion Pit, and "Surrender" by Cheap Trick included. Cheap Trick also made their own mashup/cover to kick off the contest, which you can watch (short and long version), with our party flyer, below...

"It would stretch, it turned out. After releasing an instrumental rock album and then an experimental one, Peter Bjorn and John are back with their most memorable work since 2006's "Writer's Block,'' whose lead single was "Young Folks.''

More impressive, "Gimme Some'' is arguably Peter Bjorn and John's first release that captures the immediacy and primal joy that course through their live performances.

"We often feel when people come to our shows, either they are shocked and think that the records are better, or they love the live show and think the records are lame,'' Morén says recently ahead of Peter Bjorn and John's show at the Paradise Rock Club on Thursday. "We wanted to make a record that reflects the energy and the punkiness that we have onstage.''" [Boston.com]

Bachelorette (aka New Zealand's Annabel Alpers) is releasing a self-titled album on 5/17 via Drag City. The LP was "recorded around the world and mixed by Nicholas Vernhes at Rare Book Room." in Brooklyn. That's the cover art above. Listen to a song from the album below.

The Peter Bjorn & John and Bachelorettetour is underway and reaches NYC today, 5/2, for three shows. Two of those shows are tonight at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale for the late one which begins at 10:45. The early one (show at 7:30) and Tuesday's show at Music Hall of Williamsburg are sold out.

Bachelorette also headlines her/their own show at Brooklyn's Glasslands Gallery on Wednesday, May 4th, with Warm Ghost, Rarechild, Young Heel. Tickets are on sale. PB&J have that night off, but then continue on the road with Bachelorette the next night in Boston. All tour dates are listed below.

If you missed the boat on tickets to Peter Bjorn & John at Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 3rd and Bowery Ballroom on May 2nd, you'll be happy to know the band has added another, later show at Bowery Ballroom on May 2nd with their tour-mates Bachelorette. Tickets for the new one go on AmEx presale on Wed at noon, and on regular sale on Friday.

Peter Bjorn & John are now finished with their new-LP, small-venue preview run of shows in LA and NYC that included gigs at Rock Shop & Santos, and will hit the road later this month for a proper tour. The new album, Gimme Some, is out March 28th. The North American leg of their travels starts in late April and returns to NYC for shows at Bowery Ballroom on May 2nd and Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 3rd. Tickets for those shows go on AMEX presale Wednesday at noon (2/2), and on general sale Friday.

Perky Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn & John played the cozy Rock Shop on 1/28, one of two surprise shows scheduled for the band last week (the other being downstairs at Santos Party House the night before). It was a live preview of the band's new great LP Gimme Some, set to blast on 3/29. Like the stripped-down nature of the record, the band were a real power trio at Rock Shop -- no keyboards, drum machines, samples, headphones or whistling. Just guitar (Peter), bass (Bjorn) and drums (John). And also dozens of giant three thumbed foam hands -- Gimme Some's cover art -- which were hurled into the audience. No "Young Folks," but they did play "Objects of My Affection" from Writer's Block and a jangly, spirited reworking of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It".

If you aren't familiar with some of the new PB&J material, the band recently dropped off the cowbell-fuelled "Second Chance" at iTunes and dropped off a new video for "Breaker, Breaker" (below). Check out some video of new songs and old from Rock Shop, as well as some pictures from the show below...

Yuck's self-titled debut is due out February 15 and is full of the kind of warm and fuzzy indie rock that will remind certain 30-somethings of their college years listening to Sebadoh, Teenage Fanclub and Bettie Serveert. (They also remind me of underrated mid-aughts band The Comas.) You can check out two songs above. I am super-psyched to see them.

The Glasslands show tomorrow is especially enticing. Darlings don't get enough attention, as they're one of the more tuneful bands we have in this town, and they're always good live. Above you can check out the A-side to their "Big Girl" 7" which was released late last year on Famous Class. They've got a new EP, Warmer, due out any minute. Fergus & Geronimo and Total Slacker too. Solid line-up.

Yuck, if they make it into the country, tour with Smith Westerns and then will back in March for SXSW. All Yuck dates are below. With the trouble they have, maybe they just shouldn't leave.

You can check out two tracks from The Soft Moon's debut LP which is pretty much in "classic goth" territory: relentless beats, watery bass, whispered vocals. It's all very Clan of Xymox which is a good thing if you ask me. As to what they're like live...we'll see. From footage I've seen on YouTube, they don't seem to have a drummer which is too bad, but otherwise seem to play most everything else live. I really dig the album, looking forward to this one.

Unless you don't have to get up at a normal hour on Thursday (bands don't play till 1am at Wierd), Monster Island is probably the way to go. Plus it's more klang for your buck. I caught Widowspeaklast week and thought they were pretty good, not dissimilar to YellowFever (who have a show coming up with Wild Flag by the way). Blank Dogs have finally figured out a workable live line-up, and I'm curious about Further Reductions (side project of Led Er Est) whose 7" on Captured Tracks is superior minimal synth.

There is really too much going on this week. Did you manage to get tickets to one of the two Peter Bjorn & John shows? (Thursday 1/27 at Santos, Friday 1/28 at The Rock Shop) These should be fun.

I think the surprise success of "Young Folks" was a blessing and a curse for PB&J. Here's a group that made cute, very good guitar indiepop and who probably would still be playing small clubs if it wasn't for that mega-smash that sounded like nothing the band had done before? In their case, they made an all-instrumental album (2008's Seaside Rock) and then 2009's ambitious Living Thing that was pretty good, but sounded more like a demo reel for Bjorn Yttling's production resume than something they thought about how they were going to play live.

Working with an outside producer for the first time (Per Sunding who some of you may know from excellent '90s indiepop Swedes Eggstone), Gimmie Some is the return of Peter Bjorn & John sounding like themselves again. It also sounds like three guys playing live, which bodes well for these shows, and is their best collection of songs, hands down, since Writers Block. In addition to adrenalyzed first taste "Breaker Breaker" (video below), there are three or four more crazy-catchy potential singles on the record, including the cowbell-fueled "Second Chance," and funky-ish "Dig A Little Deeper." It's a really good album.

The Decemberists played their first of three NYC shows last night. If you're going to tonight or tomorrow's sold-out shows at the Beacon, do get there early to see openers Wye Oak, one of the best bands around these days. They are chill-inducingly good live. The duo's new album, Civilian, is due out March 8 on Merge and is a real stand-up-and-take-notice stunner. It is crazy good. I don't know what the first single is going to be but if I was picking it would be the soaring "Holy Holy" that they better damn well play this week. There's video of them performing it last week in Berlin at the bottom of this post.

Wye Oak head out on tour with Lower Dens then Callers -- none of those shows are in NYC unfortunately but hopefully they'll be back soon.

That's the big stuff this week. Here are a few more picks, day-by-day:

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25

Yuck aren't playing tonight, but Generationals and Country Mice (who seem to have dropped the "We Are" from their name) are still doing their early show (7pm) at Mercury Lounge tonight. Generationals' Trust EP from last year was really good, you can download its title track at the top of this post.

"Terence William 'Blondie' Chaplin is a musician from Durban, South Africa who first became known to international audiences through his brief stint in the early 1970s as a singer and guitarist for The Beach Boys. Chaplin was also listed as a co-producer, sang lead vocals with fellow South African musician Ricky Fataar (drummer) and composed, with Fataar, "Here She Comes" and "Hold On Dear Brother" on the twenty-third official Beach Boys album, Carl and the Passions - "So Tough", released in 1972. He is well known in recent years as a long term backing vocalist, percussionist and acoustic rhythm guitarist for the Rolling Stones on their tours.

Blondie Chaplin, along with drummer Ricky Fataar, joined the Beach Boys when original drummer Dennis Wilson suffered a hand injury which left him unable to play the drums for almost two years. For the Beach Boys, it was a period in which long-time member Bruce Johnston had departed the band, and one-time leader Brian Wilson's participation in the group was very limited. As a result, Chaplin and Fataar joined the Beach Boys as full-fledged members and not merely as backing musicians. Chaplin left the group in 1973 after a dispute with the Beach Boys' management" [Wikipedia]

Blondie Chaplin has at least two (technically three) U.S. shows scheduled in the near future. The first two happen TONIGHT, January 24th at Iridium Jazz with the Les Paul Trio. There are 8pm and 10pm shows that will set you back $40 just for the ticket (not sure about the food and drink minimum). A cheaper and more-Brooklyn option is to check out Blondie on Friday, January 28th at the Rock Shop for just $10. He plays that show after a 7:30pm opening set by Kaleigh Baker. I'm not sure exactly how long he'll play though, but he will be out of there by 11pm because that's when doors open for the just-added Peter Bjorn & John show happening at the same venue. Tickets are on sale now!

Peter Bjorn and John are returning with a new non-instrumental album that was produced by Sweden's Per Sunding and not Bjorn himself. StarTime International will release Gimme Some (not to be confused with their friend Lykke Li's new song "Get Some") on March 29 in North America. The tracklist, interesting cover art, and video and MP3 for the first released song, "Breaker Breaker", is below.

A full North American tour is sure to be announced some time soon, but meanwhile you can catch PB&J if you happen to be near NYC or LA at the end of this month. And the special shows are:

Tickets for the NYC show ARE ON SALE NOW will be on sale shortly (they're not sold out - they haven't gone on sale yet). All dates, including European runs in February and April, and the above-mentioned stuff, below...

El Perro del Mar, Swedish pop singer/songwriter Sarah Assbring, will be touring North America this February. Her trip has two NYC shows: one on February 16th at (Le) Poisson Rouge (tickets are on sale), and one February 17th at Knitting Factory Brooklyn (tickets also on sale).

Her upcoming dates, which run from Philly to California, are posted below. There's also a collection of videos including the new official video for "Change Of Heart," EPDM singing with PB&J live, an in-store performance, and an interview that susses out her newest album's Last Tango in Paris inspiration (and also addresses its short length) below...

Still no word on a Gucci Mane/Beirut collabo album, but Wu-Tanger GZA has been hard at work rocking remixes and dropping collabos a-plenty. After appearing on a remix of Mando Diao's "Dance With Somebody" w/ Cadence Weaponby The Hood Internet (get that above), GZA has also popped up on another Hood Internet remix, this time of Salvador Santana's "Keyboard City". That remix inspired a second (a re-remix?) this time with Mr Green Skull himself, Dan Deacon.

Originally, GZA was featured over a remix of the song "Keyboard City" done by The Hood Internet. Now, Dan Deacon took that remix and dissected it into this an awesome blend of Vocoder / electro madness.
This collaboration was inspired by the idea of GZA and Dan Deacon working together and Salvador Santana a platform was set for more original material between the two in the future. GZA first caught wind of Dan Deacon earlier this fall and after a connection via their publicist, Dan ended up taking GZA and Salvador's remix and putting his own twist on it.

It's not the first time that the Genius has collabo'd with indie artists (he teamed up with Black Lips at SXSW, dropped mathematics on a Peter Bjorn & John's forthcoming Living Thing remix LP, and played with King Khan at FFF and elsewhere), and it won't be the last. So far we already know that Fucked Up and Devendra Banhart have contributed some original material for GZA, but now comes word that Health have remixed a track, Har Mar Superstar is on board and Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal) has also hooked up some science for GZA which will appear on his new album out in late spring of 2010. Look for it.

Ruff Ryder, D-Block member and OB4CL2 contributor Jadakiss has also scheduled a show at Highline Ballroom on 12/22 with Melanie Fiona & special guests. Tickets are on sale. J-A-to-the-mwah dropped The Last Kiss earlier this year.

It was 10 years ago this November that Peter Morén, Björn Yttling and John Eriksson decided to form a band called "Peter Bjorn And John". On November 21, 1999 the band had their first rehearsal. Now, to celebrate the fact that they are still playing together after 10 years, PB&J are going to do a special "surprise birthday tour" in select cities around North America.

The Surprise Birthday Tour was originally just a tour. What it means is that PB&J are now planning guests and "surprises" for each stop. In Philly last night (11/8), the band brought out guests "spank rock, amanda blank, rose and the alien with the beer baby bong!" Another prize is the chance to sing and/or whistle "Young Kids" on stage with the band. More details below.

Oops! Peter Bjorn and John's November 10th Terminal 5 show has been moved down to the smaller Webster Hall one day earlier (November 9th).El Perro Del Mar and Brooklyn (via Japan)'s The Suzan open the show. All T5 tix will be honored, and some are still on sale too.

El Perro Del Mar was supposed to play Joe's Pub on November 9th, so that was also canceled with this change.

"was formed by two Japanese girls, RIE(Guitar) and SAORI(Vocal) in the summer of 2003. They had been sicking and tired of recent Japanese POP idol music. So they decided to produce their own songs and bring the movement and revolution to the music scene of not only Japan but also the world by their sound."

Based on watching one of their videos (below), I'm not sure how soon they'll be making a name for themselves in the world, but somehow they got on this T5 bill, and on one of the two Fool's Gold CMJ parties this year. The flyer and more info below...

(August 11, 2009) Depeche Mode has been forced to cancel their scheduled appearance on Wednesday, August 12th at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California due to doctor's orders that lead singer Dave Gahan be on complete vocal rest for 48 hours. Because of their busy schedule, a new Bay Area date will not be rescheduled this year. "San Francisco is one of the most important cities to the band and we are devastated that we have been forced to cancel this date," said Dave Gahan. "We hope to be back soon to play for all of our fans in the area." Refunds will be issued at the point of purchase.